Lightnings in Jupiter's clouds...

[ElPelado]

I read that there are lightnings in Jupiter's clouds that are easyer to see in the dark side. So, does any body want to make a night texture for Jupiter with those lightnings?

[Don. Edwards]

ElPelado,
I have already achieved this in full motion no less. I made a post about it in my updated news about the work on my HD28185 system add-on. There didn't seem too much interest so I dropped the idea of making a Jupiter version. When I don't get enough feedback on a project or idea that is what I do. I let it fall into the round file until users start asking about it again. I showed a very good proof of concept for making lighting almost a year ago to avail. The lighting in the atmosphere of the gas giant HD28185B was also for the most part ignored. There is a movie of the effect in the thread. So it has been canceled as part of the add-on also.
Now if there is enough interest I will resurrect the idea and make a Jupiter version. But I will need to know which Jupiter texture everyone wants as the base. I can make one based on my preferred Jupiter texture but it may not be what everyone else wants to use. It is important to have the texture nailed down as it is a very important part of making the masks for the lightning effects to work. So if anyone really and truly wants this feature then speak now or forever hold your peace. Here is another video, a shorter one this time showing the effect http://63.224.48.65/~impulse/HD_28185/002.avi
What looks like noise or glitching on the darkside is the lightning effect. You will need the most up-to-date DIVX plug-in to see the movie. Also zoom it full screen to see the effect better.
I will not try to push this idea forward again. So if you want the effect than it is time to ask for it. If not than that’s ok and I will just keep the effect to myself.
Thanks for your time.

Don. Edwards

[ElPelado]

I would realy love to see that effect, it looks very nice!!
And I think I remember something about your topic...

[Brendan]

I remember seeing the movie and wondering why the addon wasn't released yet. I would love to see it for Jupiter. Do the other gas giants also have lightning?

Brendan

[Bob Hegwood]

Now if there is enough interest I will resurrect the idea and make a Jupiter version. But I will need to know which Jupiter texture everyone wants as the base.

Don,

Would like to be able to see the effect, but would also like to be able to turn it off if I could. I'm afraid that the "sparkle" factor would simply annoy me if I had to see it all of the time. Do you understand what I mean? Maybe the effect could be toned down a bit?

Not trying to criticize your work, it *is* an interesting effect. At any rate, my preference for Jupiter can be found in this topic.

Of course, my preferences are usually 180 degrees away from everyone else's, so don't pay too much attention to me here.

By the way, aren't you also setting yourself up for more trouble? Whenever a new texture comes along, you'll be bombarded with requests to add the effect won't you?

Just letting you know what I think...

Take care, Bob

[marc]

Those video clips look stunning. I'd love to have this effect as a standard feature in my project.
How does it work? are you changing the night texture using a looped lua script?
Please do tell.

As for the Jupiter texture: I hope you use yours, but I would like to see the HD28185 system finished first.

regards Marc.

[Don. Edwards]

Hey everyone,
I will try to cover as many of the questions as possible here.

Brendan,
The main reasons that the HD28185 add-on isn't finished has been time. I just haven't had allot of it. First there was the issue with my video card dying. Second I have been out trying to find a job, I happen to live the state(Oregon)were we have some of the highest unemployment in the country(USA). I got the new video card from someone here in the forum I did some texture work for, Frank. There were a few issues at first. Namely my system was a mess after trying to resurrect my GeForce4 Ti 4600. So I had to do a complete reinstall of Windows XP Pro, all the drivers, programs, and just basic system tweaking to get everything the way I wanted it. Then I started to notice that the new card, a GeForce FX 5900SE was not working right. I have spent the better part of a week troubleshooting this on and off while looking for a job. Well the job came through on Wednesday so that is out of the way. Now the reason for the 5900SE's abysmal performance was an issue that I just had to solve. The card worked great in a P4-Celeron based system. I am a real system tweaker so everything about my main system is about power and speed. I could get most games to work ok, and even NVidia's demos Dawn and Dusk worked ok but not as I felt they should be. I was starting to think that indeed my AGP bus was fried because of the GeForce4 card biting the big one. Than I happened to run Sis-soft Sandra and was looking over my systems specs and noticed video memory sizes. I noticed that it said I had 160MB of total video memory. This wasn't right. Than I realized it was giving the total memory including the buffer set in the system bios for AGP. I had always set this to its lowest setting, as is per normal for system speed freaks like me. Well I went and set it higher and low and low and behold I saw an improvement with the card. I wasn't great but it was better. After that I decided to check my solarsys.ssc just to make sure that something wasn't wrong. BINGO!. I had somehow pluged in a .tga version of an Earth-specmap instead of the .dds version and plugging it into the wrong line to boot. So after getting that all cleaned up I can finally say this card does indeed rock. It is at least twice as fast as the old card. So I am now back in business so to speak. But there will be more lengthy delays for upcoming projects. My job is on the graveyard shift and I have to drive 20 miles to work now. So my texture and add-on crunching time has been cut some. These things will get finished but as they say in the wine industry "no wine will be sold before its time" or something like that. So the same goes for the add-on and my textures. You can have fast and crummy or it can take longer and be really great. I am more inclined toward great myself.

Bob,
I could release a demo of how it works I guess. But I would prefer to get it all working 100%. It works really close to 95% at this point.
As for your concern over the blinking of the lighting, it really can't be seen at any real clarity beyond say the orbit of Io. So if you just happen to be looking at the dark side of Jupiter and you were say in orbit of Callisto you wouldn’t' even see the effect. This makes it more realistic anyway. Voyager only saw the lightning when it made a pretty close swing by the dark side. So in this my effect is pretty accurate. Of course it can be turned off by simply turning off night side lights. I suppose it could also be plugged in as an alternate texture but the alternate texture code would have to be modified to allow for overriding more of the textures than it does now. I found that there is a limit to how many textures can be overridden with this feature when I was working on making the cloud-shadowamps work for Earth.
As for me having to keep updating the texture/add-on, isn't going to happen, at least not by me. When and if I release a Jupiter version it will include the instructions and masking tools so anyone with Photoshop or anyone who is really gifted with GIMP can make them there selves. I never intended to hog the knowledge, I would just like to hold onto it for just a while longer as to work out a few things and write up really good instructions.

Marc,
Ahh, it is magic of course. It's all done with smoke and mirrors.

Don. Edwards

[Bob Hegwood]

As for your concern over the blinking of the lighting, it really can't be seen at any real clarity beyond say the orbit of Io. So if you just happen to be looking at the dark side of Jupiter and you were say in orbit of Callisto you wouldn’t' even see the effect. This makes it more realistic anyway. Voyager only saw the lightning when it made a pretty close swing by the dark side. So in this my effect is pretty accurate. Of course it can be turned off by simply turning off night side lights.

Sounds like you've got all of the bases covered to me, Don.

I'm also glad that you're employed again. I just got canned because I told my boss to "Stick his head up his..." well, you get the idea.

So,

I'm looking for employment now myself. Not in any great hurry, though.
I kinda like playing with Celestia all day!

Take care, Bob

[fsgregs]

Don, I tried to open your avi link in this thread and nothing appeared. Is that site down at the moment?

Also, have you a picture of your Jupiter? I am using Fridger's detailed texture and I don't know if yours is better. Do you have it in a gallery or could you post your Jupiter?

I'd love to see lightning on the dark side of Jupiter.

P.S. - I'm so glad the card rocks. Enjoy it with my appreciation.

Frank